The Adopt a Grandparent Foundation has made Josefa Diaz Ruiz's dream of seeing the sea for the first time come true today and for this they have chosen the Arenal-Bol beach in Calpe. Josefa is an octogenarian housewife from Membrilla in Ciudad Real although she lives in Madrid and today she has bathed for the first time in the sea thanks to the activity of the Adopt a Grandparent Foundation that once a month carries out an action to fulfill the dream of an elderly person.
Josefa has moved today by train to Calpe from Madrid accompanied by members of the Foundation and after seeing the sea for the first time has decided to bathe her feet in the Arenal beach. On her arrival in Calpe she was welcomed by the Deputy Mayor Juan Manuel del Pino, the mayor of Social Welfare, Itziar Doval, and the councilman of Culture Guillermo Sendra, who presented her with a picture of Calpe as a souvenir of today's day.
After seeing the sea for the first time after being blindfolded, Josefa reacted with astonishment and asked “how far does the sea go? In the program of activities Josefa will take a catamaran trip and have lunch in Calpe before returning to Madrid.
Adopta Un Abuelo is an application that connects volunteers with elderly people who are lonely. The goal is to make them feel listened to, accompanied and loved while volunteers learn values and life experiences.
The association was born in 2014 and, since then, has become a social movement being awarded more than 20 times in entrepreneurship and social innovation at national and international level. To date, they have provided more than 50,000 hours of companionship to more than 6,600 adopted grandparents thanks to their community of more than 13,000 volunteers and have coordinated more than 290 socialization and dream fulfillment events for seniors. It currently has more than 250,000 registered users from 18 countries.